Shohei Imamura's Black Rain (Kuroi Ame, 1989) was not the only solemn, black-and-white, rural drama to come out of Japan in the late '80s. Although Kaneto Shindo's Tree without Leaves is also largely set in the environs of Hiroshima, the title is not an allusion to the mushroom cloud, but to a family without succession. The story is framed as a series of reminiscences by aging scriptwriter Haru (Kobayashi, no doubt a substitute for Shindo himself, who also wrote and produced the film), who has isolated himself somewhere in the woods of Nagano Prefecture to work on his first novel. As the last surviving member of his kin, he intends to chronicle the family he grew up in, and more specifically the role of his mother.

Starring:

Keiju Kobayashi, Nobuko Otowa, Ichirô Zaitsu, Meiko Kaji, Kotoe Hatsui, Taiji Tonoyama, Bin Moritsuka, Rokko Toura, Yûno Sugawara, Tokiko Miyama, Mami Okamoto, M. Shôjo, Fumi Uesugi, Ken Apacchi, Tsuyoshi Naitô

Genre:

Drama